Consumer Engagement and the Change to a Sustainable Transport Consumption Pattern
(A2020-63269)

AUTHORS

John Thøgersen, Aarhus University; Ting Zhang, Sun Yat-sen University, Business School

KEYWORDS

Consumer engagement; behavioral spillover; self-identity

ABSTRACT

Consumer engagement attracts increasing attention in marketing. Here, we study the impact of engagement in environmental issues for consumer willingness to adopt new pro-environmental behaviors in the transport domain: “green” leisure travel and buying an electric car. A repre-sentative sample of residents of Denmark (N = 550) were surveyed on pro-environmental be-havior, pro-environmental self-identity and intentions to adopt these, in the context, new behav-iors. We find that past behavioral engagement has a strong effect on the willingness to engage in these new pro-environmental behaviors, partly mediated through and amplified by pro-environmental self-identity (psychological engagement). For the purchase of an electric car we also find a significant interaction between PEB and PEI, which suggests that to motivate diffi-cult behaviors such as this both psychological and behavioral engagement are needed.